Jesse St. James
Jesse St. James is an eighteen year-old ifreet who lives with his boyfriend in Lima, Ohio. He attends Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts in Akron, Ohio, a school that exclusively serves fae. There he is also the star of Vocal Adrenaline, the school's show choir and the nation's reigning Show Choir National Champions for five consecutive years, of which he led to three. He also performs professionally as an independent actor and has worked with the Cleveland City Dance Company. He also semi-regularly performs live at the Corny Cornet. Jesse is a very dramatic, judgmental, arrogant, and, in some ways, especially fashionably, eccentric individual. He openly has relationships with men, women, and the many other variations that are only further increased by faekind, but he chooses not to subscribe to any labels. He is currently dating Blaine Anderson and has a crush on Kurt Hummel. Biography Childhood : Jesse was born Jesse Adrian St. James at Mount Sinai Hospital in Manhattan, New York on April 7, 1995 to as ingle mother, Talia Alma St. James. Talia is aligned with the Light Fae and a theatre actor, like her son, with considerable fame and wealth. She's successful enough to be known in the theatre circles, but not internationally recognized like Patti LuPone. She’s an ifreet, like her son. : Jesse never knew his father, only knowing that he was Dark Fae and a leanan-sidhe. He was raised to believe his father seduced and lied to Talia about his identity. When she found out his true allegiance, she left him, but at the time didn’t know she was pregnant. : Talia was happy and loved Jesse for the first year of his life, but she quickly grew to resent him. Not only did Jesse remind his mother of his father, but he kept her from the stage and from her social life. She couldn't do what she lived to do, be adored. So, shortly after his first birthday, Talia took Jesse to [Manor|live with her Aswang brother, Bernard, in Lima, Ohio. : Bernard was a lazy alcoholic who had let his house fall into barely livable conditions, so Talia stayed around for a few months to oversee the restoration process and get Jesse settled in with a nanny. After then, she went back to Manhattan and her glamorous life. She sent generous amounts of money to ensure Jesse had a life of quality, and every Summer she would arrange for him to visit with her. These visits quickly deteriorated into him simply staying at her place with the nanny while she lived her life uninterrupted, but it led to Jesse being raised in the theatre. : By the time Jesse was old enough to enroll in school, Talia had become almost completely uninvolved in his life, assuming Bernard and the Nanny were taking care of everything. Several months before he turned six, she was issued a warning by the government to enroll her son in school within the next year or face charges of child negligence. She then took a greater interest in his life, though by now almost all emotional attachment was gone. She immediately enrolled him in private school, ballet, and voice lessons although he was a year behind. Then when he turned seven, she arranged for him to be cast as Tiny Tim in a production of A Christmas Carol at the Allen Theatre in Cleveland, Ohio as part of the Cleveland Playhouse. : The woman playing Mrs. Crachet was Sheryl Bipson, a fairy aligned with the Dark who was over two millennia old. She took pity on Jesse and coached him through the production. Afterwards, she basically became Jesse's godmother. She contacted Talia and asked to be his nanny without pay. Talia didn't hesitate to accept. Sheryl fired the old nanny and took care of Jesse from the on. She raised him to be exceptionally talented and a happy young boy, coaching him in the theatre and with his voice, teaching him some Old Irish, and giving him much-deserved love. Jesse spent less and less summertime in Manhattan with Talia, and more and more with Sheryl in New Orleans. : Now that he was living on his sister's money, Bernard didn't do much. He just ate carrion, drank booze, and watched TV. But with Sheryl, he no longer had hired help to get him drinks. So when she wasn't around, he taught Jesse to mix drinks, starting at about the age of twelve. It wasn't anything harmful, he didn't force Jesse to get drunk or anything, he just taught him a skill that was inappropriate for a child so young. Adolescence : Sheryl didn't keep Jesse with the Cleveland Playhouse for too many years after they first met. Feeling dissatisfied with all their productions, she switched them over to the Great Lakes Theater Company at the Hanna Theatre when he was 10. : As a fifteenth birthday present to Jesse, Sheryl enrolled him at Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts. Shortly after, she fell ill. She was dying, so she returned to her ancient home in the Irish countryside. She didn't want Jesse to come, but he insisted. He spent that Summer with her until she died on July 17, 2010. : When he returned from Ireland, he left Great Lakes Theater and took a break from acting. He decided to completely renovate the house. Talia had only made it livable, but Jesse was going to restore the old Victorian to it's original glory. Before Bernard had bought the house, the old ballroom and solarium had collapsed and been removed. Jesse rebuilt them and dedicated them to Sheryl who loved birds and the moon by designing them to reflect those themes. He also added a separate garage and a balcony from his bedroom overlooking the rear garden. To cope and out of the contempt for his mother that had grown over the years, he spared himself no extravagance. When the renovations were complete, Jesse adopted a female gray scottish-fold and hired two regular staff members, Roopkamal Goyal, a seniatta, as a cook and Seamus, a brownie, as house and grounds keeper. Carmel Institute for the Performing Arts Freshman Year (2010-2011) : That September, Jesse started at Carmel as a theatre major with a minor in ballet and extracurricular with the show choir, Vocal Adrenaline . That's where he met Gray van Havens, a junior, a fairy with the Dark,an undeclared major with dreams of being a pop star, and the star of Vocal Adrenaline. She had led them to two consecutive National Titles the years before. The combination of her talent, beauty, and kinship to Sheryl were irresistible to Jesse. His talent was quickly realized by the director who uses the Fall Invitational and Sectionals performances to showcase new talent. Jesse is chosen as Gray's duet partner for the Invitational. Gray remained skeptical of his abilities until they performed. The next day, they started dating. They performed together at Sectionals as well, and he outshone her. It put some minor tension on their relationship. : When they returned to school from Winter Break, Jesse continued to outshine Gray and it was decided that their setlist for Regionals should feature them equally. They would have a duet and then each a solo. Gray was livid, but the pressure of being the school's and Vocal Adrenaline's star-power couple was too much for them to break up. So, while they appeared to be fine on the surface, their relationship had actually quickly turned toxic. : On his sixteenth birthday, Jesse had his Gathering Ceremony. Having been raised more by Sheryl than anyone Jesse always felt more akin to the Dark Fae, so he asked his mother if he could choose the Dark. She was angry and defiantly refused, saying if he chose the Dark she would disown him and he would be out on the street. So Jesse reluctantly chose the Light, not yet ready to support himself. It was that day Jesse started making political connections and educating himself on the Dark in hopes that one day he would find a way to switch sides. : Nationals were in mid-April and Chicago that year. With the performance equally centered around Jesse and Gray again, they easily won despite their relationship being a farce. Shortly after their win at Nationals, Jesse began an apprenticeship with the Cleveland City Dance Company for their production of A Midsummer Night's Dream— opened in June and lasted until mid-September. At the end of the year, Gray's military father was relocated to Texas. Sophomore Year (2011-2012) : When Jesse returned from his apprenticeship, he was celebrated as the sole star of Vocal Adrenaline. There wasn't much new talent that year, so the Invitational and Sectionals were dominated by group numbers with several small feature solos with only one full solo by him at Sectionals. With Vocal Adrenaline not being as demanding of him, Jesse was able to expand his interests and group of friends. Three things happened from this. : First, he quickly realized he is one of, if not the most talented person in his fields, and without Gray, there was no one who was sufficiently challenging to him. Craving competition, Jesse set up an underground fight club at Carmel for others needing some sort of physical release. When he came home with rather severe injuries, Roopkamal called her husband, Benjamin, to come heal him. Benjamin Goyal and his sister Sasha Goyal run the Bicchu Serenity Clinic. Bicchu is the phonetic spelling of बिच्छू, the Hindi word for scorpion, which is the symbol of the Egyptian Goddess of healing Serket. The name comes from the fact that both Benjamin and Sasha are Indian serkets. To humans, the business is a day spa and rejuvenation clinic, but its main clientele is wounded fae. After meeting Benjamin, Jesse integrated the clinic into the fight club. All the members became regular customers after fights because, as artists, they couldn't practice their crafts with regular injuries. : Second, he discovered the Corny Cornet, a speakeasy turned piano bar in Downtown Lima. It was a fae-owned establishment and neutral ground, but also catered to human patrons. In his free time, he began performing alone there semi-regularly, an opportunity he rarely got with Vocal Adrenaline. Eventually he met the owners, Jolene and Bella Donna, sisters. In addition to owning the bar, they ran a talent agency, Donna Sisters Enterprises. Initially they had targetted him to be their next client and victim, but he quickly caught on to their scheme. When he confronted them, they were impressed, and the three of them quickly became dear friends. : Third, he met Eric Taylor in a music theory class. Eric was a junior, an elf with the Dark, a musical composition major, and a violinist. Eric had been in the supporting orchestra for the dance program, theatre program, and Vocal Adrenaline and therefore had seen Jesse and had a crush on him for a long time. The began dating in October. Since Jesse was arguably the most popular student at Carmel, everyone knew about him and Eric. Eventually, Eric grew jealous of Jesse's talent and obviously bright future, whereas his own was incredibly uncertain. : Carmel's Spring production was Sweeny Todd that Spring and Jesse was Anthony Hope. Out of jealousy, Eric marked Jesse with an elvish rune before his opening night in March and caused him to choke while singing Johanna. Jesse instantly realized what happened and confronted Eric during intermission. Jesse dumped Eric and had him thrown out. Assumably ashamed, Eric disappeared from school without a trace, leaving their break up to viscous rumors. Nationals were in late May and San Francisco that year, giving Jesse plenty of time to close with Sweeny Todd and prepare for the competition. He led them to the National Title for a second time. Junior Year (2012-2013) : Shortly after the school year ended, Jesse was cast as Link Larkin in a full length professional of ''Hairspray ''at the Ohio Theatre. He took the first few months of school off for the show, and his performance was lauded by critics across the Midwest. When he returned, his success was celebrated. He also met a trio of transfer students who are the new talent in Vocal Adrenaline, Giselle Clemens, Veronica Vega, and Lucy Quan. All three were juniors, theatre majors, furies, Dark Fae, and best friends. He was unable to perform in the Fall Invitational because of the show, but he saw it and they were featured. They were better dancers than singers, but as a group they were incredibly formidable. Sectionals that year featured the trio in a solo A Capella number with a complex dance routine, a duet between Veronica and Lucy, and a solo by Giselle, who was easily the most talented of the trio. : Jesse and Giselle began a fast-paced relationship after he saw the extent of her talent. However, she was just using him to elevate her status at Carmel. He found out at the Regionals competition and dumped her. He lied and said it was because she was a mediocre, second-rate talent who was holding him back. This led to her reputation to plummet and him being labelled a heartbreaker. Regionals was centered around him with one duet between him and Giselle. The tension in the duet almost cost them the competition. Nationals were in early April and New York City that year and. featured only him. He led them to a third win. However, while in New York, he made the mistake of visiting his mother who recently found out he was failing his core academics because he let his success get to his head. She told him she was pulling his tuition at Carmel until he got his act together. William McKinley High School End of Term (April – June) : Jesse transferred to the local public school in Lima, McKinley High. Luckily, in the renovation two years ago, he had transformed two of the bedrooms into a small practice space so he wouldn't go completely out of practice without his dance classes. However, it wasn't a completely miserable situation. He found out many interesting things about the head cheerleader there, Quinn Fabray. She came from Dark nobility and liked to break the rules by feeding off other fae from time to time. He befriended both of them, as well as the light fae boy who would be Quinn's undoing, Sam Evans. Summer (June – August) : Without the pressures of a show choir and theatre program, Jesse easily got his grades up and Talia agreed to let him transfer back to Carmel in the Fall. He was soon cast in his first professional lead role as Melchior in a professional production of ''Spring Awakening ''(Opening September 1st, Closing November 9th) at the Ohio Theatre. : However, the father he never knew, Ciaran dé Danann, showed up at the same time and turned out to be the Mellinoë. The two had a confrontation and the man was thrown out of Jesse's house. : A week after his father's appearance, Jesse met Blaine Anderson, a young light fae. The day after they met, they had an impromtu sing-off at the Corny Cornet. That same night, Jesse met again with his father. Ciaran offered a way for Jesse to turn to the Dark, told Jesse that he had initially hired Sheryl but her feelings were still true, and taught Jesse how to use the grip of insanity. Ciaran then agreed to start meeting Jesse to train him. : The following Friday, Jesse and Blaine went on a casual date. They met at a lake in Lima Forest which was officially Dark Fae territory. The couple was attacked by a boraro, a frost giant, and another unknown fae. The attack nearly cost both of the boys their lives, but they managed to escape. : After that night, Jesse and Blaine continued seeing each other. Jesse eventually asked Ciaran to send a dullahan after their attackers, and he met up with his father for another training session. Without warning, on July 21, Ciaran announced that Jesse would be meeting the Morrígan that evening. He knew one of the Dark Fae Elders, or at least a representative for them would be present. What he did not expect was the attendance of High Elder Katarina Malori Asarov, his boss and inarguably one of the most powerful fae in the world. : The meeting was going well until Jesse suddenly was overcome with the doubts that had been growing over the past few months, especially since he met Blaine, and he abruptly left the meeting. After leaving the Morrígan's, Jesse ran away to New York, to Talia. He didn't know where else to go, and though he didn't expect much to come of his trip, he actually, for once, really talked with his mother, both finally listening to each other. Their relationship isn't likely to ever resemble anything near the typical parent-child relationship, but they started to clear out the years of bitterness and resentment. : Upon the eve of his return, Blaine's mother was also mysteriously killed, causing her to immolate and rebirth herself from her ashes. Shortly after, Jesse began rehearsals for "Spring Awakening". They eventually managed to find another phoenix in the Australian Outback and took Ariana there to be raised by someone who knew what to do. Days later, Blaine's elleged half-brother, Cooper, showed up. The man worked quickly to tear Jesse and Blaine apart, kidnapping and almost killing Jesse in the process. But Blaine saved him and they left Cooper to die in the Ashes of Blaine's latest house. Spring Awakening (September – November) Fae Type: Ifreet (see link above for more information) : As an ifreet, Jesse has nearly mastered the adoring touch and his ability to feed. He has been marked once and the experience was enough to traumatize him, though it is not uncommon for ifreet to fear being caged or have their free will removed. He has yet to venture into the Unseen. He has only teleported a handful of time and each time takes great effort. He was aware of one of his unique powers and had become quite adept at inspiring those around him, but he was not even aware of his ability to affect a person's sanity until recently. Unique Powers Inspiring Aura : Jesse’s father is a leanan-sidhe , a sort of evil muse that causes the inspired person to go insane. Jesse's unique powers are affected by this genetic link. He can cast a sort of aura of inspiration and make the people around him perform better. In some ways, it’s a mental link, because Jesse can send information into the people around him, whether it’s lyrics, notes, dance steps, dialogue lines. However, the information is not directly sent. It’s more as if his knowledge is leaking into the minds of those around him. However, he can choose who is does and does not affect. Grip of Insanity : Another power influenced by his father is that Jesse’s touch can not only force adoration into people, but it can also cause them to go insane. He can control the speed and degree by which the target goes insane. Credits